Councillor wants to complete unfinished business

Michael Shikongo, the councillor who has served Rundu Rural constituency for ten years, wants voters, who are dissatisfied with him, to give him another term so that he can bring services to them.

Prospective voters in Rundu Rural Constituency have in recent weeks been grumbling that he is never accessible and has done very little to bring basic services to the constituency.

“I am promising Rundu Rural that by the end of my next term – if they give me another chance – they will see me achieve a lot in just three years, of course guided by the Swapo Party manifesto. The other two years will just be to oversee how to empower people to stand on their own,” he said.

Despite what his detrators are saying on his non-delivery following previous elections, Shikongo is not fazed, and says he made it possible to bring a gravel road that connects nine villages in his constituency. All that is left is to connect the remaining four villages still not linked to the road.

“Now people can even go there with bicycles and back. You don’t need a 4×4 to get there,” he said.
Shikongo said people should just be patient: “What they did was their democratic right, but they should know that government programmes don’t happen overnight. It takes time, but eventually the goal is achieved. I am promising them is that by next year the water pipeline in Rundu Rural will be completed to provide all communities with drinking water,” he said.

He told New Era that most villages have water now and only a few still need to get access to potable drinking water.
“The only problem during my term was the water pipeline, which was to bring water to Mayana, Kayengona and Uvungu-vungu villages, but since January we have been on it and it will be finalised soon,” he added.

According to Shikongo, through his office many community projects have been realised. “As we speak we have empowered many people in the constituency. Maize and mahangu milling machines have been given to different projects to provide milling services to residents of Rundu Rural. People don’t pound mahangu and maize anymore, there are milling machines all over,” Shikongo said.

Shikongo further said he still has projects that he needs to finish in the next term. He said since the cattle population is increasing in the constituency and people in the villages have to spend a lot on diesel to pump boreholes (as community members have to pay a fee to buy diesel collectively) he would introduce a new system that would be easy on the wallets of residents.

He said there are plans to bring in a solar system that would replace the old diesel-powered system.“So elders who are getting their pension can use their money for something else. That is the plan that I should execute in the next five years,” he said.

Shikongo won the Swapo primaries in September after he got 110 votes, compared to the 46 votes garnered by Lucas Mbangu.
Shikongo will be running against APP candidate Marcelius Haivera for the hot seat.